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About Jay

Racecar
designer Jay Novak has enjoyed a long and illustrious career in auto
racing,
professionally and personally.

His
enthusiasm for the sport started years before he got his driver's
license, when
his mother took him to his first race at age 12.Novak began as a driver, but ended up getting his
degree in mechanical
engineering from Lawrence Technical University so he could make a
living and
still pursue his passion. The Detroit native joined Ford Motor Company
in 1978
in hopes of making the Ford Racing team. He started as an experimental
mechanic
and worked his way up to NASCAR Manager for Ford Racing.

During his eight year stint
with Ford Racing Novak was the NASCAR Chassis Technical Specialist for
four
years and the NASCAR Winston Cup Manager for the other half of his
tenure.He made many significant contributions to the
technical advancement of
Ford Racing’s support program, including contributing to a Winston Cup
driver's championship, two manufacturers' championships and 42 Winston
Cup wins
in his four short seasons as NASCAR Manager.Novak also designed an advanced NASCAR chassis that
is now the basis for
a significant percentage of NASCAR chassis.

The
engineer just retired from Ford as a Vehicle Dynamics Technical
Specialist for
North American Car.

Now
Novak will be able to devote his life full time to amateur racing,
something he
has pursued up until now only in his spare time. Over the years Novak
has
created and built ten road racing car designs and more than 25 cars
that have
won hundreds of SCCA races as well as numerous championships with many
different
drivers.

Novak
has been awarded three patents for automotive suspensions and is in the
process
of getting his fourth.He
created
and developed the Ford ride “DNA” test method that isused in North America to objectively measure the
ride of all of Ford’s
and competitors' vehicles. Novak was also the lead project engineer on
the
design, development and implementation of the Ford Kinematics &
Compliance
Laboratory and the Ford Mass, Moment of Inertia (MMI) Laboratory. He
co-authored
three SAE papers on the uses of the MMI lab and was nominated for the
prestigious Henry Ford Technical Excellence Award three times.

Novak
is married and has three children.

See the Links page
for a path to some of the work and papers mentioned above.